Reid leaves Senate with a legacy that will help Trump
By Erin Kelly and Seth Richardson, USA Today
When President-elect Donald Trump looks to the Senate for confirmation of his Cabinet nominees next year, he’ll have outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid to thank for Democrats’ powerlessness to block his choices.
The Nevada Democrat, a fierce Trump opponent who often referred to the president-elect as “a spoiled brat,” took dramatic action in 2013 to end Republicans’ ability to mount a filibuster to derail President Obama’s judicial and Cabinet nominees.
Reid, who was majority leader at the time, used a parliamentary move known as the “nuclear option” to change a nearly 40-year-old Senate rule. The change meant that the Senate now needs only a simple majority of 51 votes — rather than a super-majority of 60 — to proceed to confirmation votes on Cabinet secretaries, agency directors and judges, except for the Supreme Court.